Old German Shepherd — an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of a real dog
An AI-generated illustration — not a photograph of a real dog.

Old German Shepherd

Placed on this panel from 3 sequenced dogs, among 258 breeds.

Measured nearest to East-European shepherd — but drop any one of the sequenced dogs behind this breed and a different one comes first, so naming a single closest breed would be a lie of precision. The top of this list is a tie.

The 12 breeds nearest to Old German Shepherd.

The line starts at the tightest pairing this panel holds and ends at the widest separation measured on it, so how far along these marks sit is the answer to how close Old German Shepherd really is to anything.

1East-European shepherd2White Swiss Shepherd Dog3Bohemian Shepherd4Czechoslovakian Wolfdog5Saarloos Wolfdog6Chinook7Picardy Shepherd8Dutch Shepherd9Hovawart10Belgian Malinois11Bergamasco Sheepdog12Cretan Tracer

Closeness is measured from the genomes, and nothing else. It has no units and no dates. Two breeds sitting close together means their lines separate late in this data. It does not mean either one came from the other.

3 sequenced dogs is a thin sample. This breed’s exact neighbours could move if more were added; the neighbourhood is steadier than the order within it.